Isaiah 9:1-2 (NIV)
My dad wasn’t in charge of the TV very often. But there were certain shows that we knew we would be watching because he said so. “Sanford and Son.” “All in the Family.” And on every Saturday night, “Hee Haw.” I would protest, of course; it just wasn’t “cool” to watch a country music show. But deep down inside, I actually enjoyed it. There aren’t too many musicians more talented than Roy Clark. Set in the fictional rural area known as Kornfield Kounty, the show included the Hee Haw Honeys in their short shorts, Minnie Pearl wearing her hat with the price tag dangling on the side, Archie Campbell and Gordie Tapp singing “PFFT! You was gone!” (Where, oh where, are you tonight? Why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and thought I’d found true love, you met another, and PFFT! you was gone!)
But the segment I would always wait for – and it didn’t appear every week – featured Roy Clark, Gordie Tapp, Grandpa Jones, and Archie Campbell. They would be looking absolutely miserable and each verse would recount the reasons for their misery. The chorus, including wails and howls, went like this: “Gloom, despair, and agony on me! Deep, dark depression, excessive misery! If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all! Gloom, despair, and agony on me!”
Looking back, it seems as though the last two years have been a time of gloom and despair and agony. The COVID pandemic has claimed millions of lives, the old and the young, the healthy and the feeble. The US economy has been struggling, prices have risen, there have been shortages of items as varied as toilet paper and baby formula. We have seen outbreaks of violence, including an assault on the U.S. Capitol two years ago, as well as racial tensions, heated debates over vaccinations, a contentious presidential election and midterm elections, a war breaking out when Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago. We continue to see the havoc wreaked by the climate crisis, as well as natural disasters from flooding to tornadoes and hurricanes to earthquakes. There seems to be so much darkness in our world right now. We wonder where or when it will ever end.
The prophet Isaiah wrote during a time when darkness hung over his world. He lived in the southern kingdom of Judah during the 8th century BC. He saw the Assyrian Empire take over the northern kingdom of Israel in 732 BC. He wrote of the oppression that the Israelites suffered as a result of military occupation. It was a time of fear and struggle just to survive. Isaiah knew that the people felt defeated and abandoned by God. But Isaiah offered a word of hope in the midst of the desolation and gloom and despair.
Isaiah spoke a word of promise for those who had all but given up. He said, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. A light has dawned on those living in the land of the shadow of death.” We are now a month away from the shortest day of the year, and the daylight hours have become longer as the light remains a little longer every day. But the light that Isaiah writes about is not a light that grows gradually over time. As Stephanie Paulsell, professor at Harvard Divinity School, points out, “The brightness of the light Isaiah proclaims shines on a people walking in darkness like a brilliant dawn suddenly breaking … It is the kind of light that gives direction and drives out fear.”
I remember as a little girl that my dad used to take me to K-Mart with him after supper sometimes. I thought it was because he liked spending time with me. But when I was grown, I found out that it was because my mom was going nuts with me and my brother all day and told him to take one of us away for a while! Anyway, one night we were getting ready to go, and I went running out the front door to head for his car. I got about 20 feet out the door and found myself in total darkness. I had not thought to turn on the outside light before taking off. I turned around and shouted back, “Daddy! There’s a big dark out here!” I was afraid; but I also knew that I could trust my dad to either come out to me in the darkness or to turn on the light.
That was the promise that Isaiah was making to the people. God wasn’t going to leave his people in the darkness by themselves indefinitely. God was going to turn on the light in their desolate situation. They would see a way out, a way forward. Isaiah could see a time to come when things wouldn’t look so bad. He was able to imagine the way things would be in the future. As Paulsell writes, “Even in a time of desolation, Isaiah is able to imagine and to describe a great light breaking, illuminating the path of those who walk in darkness, fear, and pain.”
As Christians, we see this time to come as the time when Jesus came to this earth. This passage is often read during Advent or Christmas. We believe that Jesus himself is the light that God sent to the world. In John’s gospel, in Chapter 1, verses 4 and 5, we read, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness had not overcome it.” Jesus himself claimed, “I am the light of the world.” And in Matthew 4:13-16, this passage from Isaiah 9 is quoted to announce the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
Jesus came to bring light to our darkness, to our personal times of gloom and despair, to the times of oppression in the world, to the theological darkness when we feel that God has abandoned us. John C. Holbert, professor emeritus at Perkins School of Theology, at SMU in Dallas, writes, “It is all too easy to become cynical in the face of the centuries of wars, unrest, and suffering … However, Christians who look always for the light of God in the darkness can never become cynical, because we trust in the God who always is bringing light. However dim that light appears to be at times, we are convinced that that light can never be overcome by darkness … The light of God again and again breaks into whatever darkness we create, or is created by others, or appears naturally in our world. That is the central and basic power of the gospel.”
But let’s take it a step farther. Not only is Jesus the light of the world, but he called his followers to also be the light. He stated, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
So how do we let our light shine? How is it that we can be the light of the world?
We let the light of Christ shine through us. We do the things that Jesus did. We love the unlovely and the unlovable. We even love our enemies. We go the extra mile. We give to those who are in need. We feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty. We ask what the people in our community need, and we try to provide out of our resources. We treat people with respect, as children of God, no matter who they are or what their socioeconomic status or level of education or the color of their skin. We do our best to make a positive difference in our world, in our community, one person at a time.
There are so many ways that we can overcome the darkness. And there are so many people who need to see the light. God sent Jesus into the world to bring hope to those in gloom and despair. And we – as followers of Jesus – have the same mission, the same calling, the same task. But to do that, we have to first claim that hope in our own lives. We have to first allow the light of Christ to illuminate our own darkness. We have to believe that there will be no more gloom.
